There's a Reason They Call Them Hummingbirds

If you have been a reader of this blog, you will know the joy that watching the birds has brought me (especially during those dark days of winter) -- setting out food for them at the feeder and watching them enjoy. I have marked the numbers and varieties of birds, and only removed our main feeder late this spring when the grackles and starlings became too rowdy. After the feeder was put away, I missed my birds. The cardinal would often, in the morning, come to our deck and scold us for taking the food away, so I started throwing out handfuls of food onto the deck or laying some across the railing.

And then I received a hummingbird feeder for my birthday. It took some time to get it set up, and then it took some time to actually attract the birds, but now we have regular summer visitors -- a pair who feed many times a day. They are skittish, but allowed me to capture a photo this morning while I was enjoying the growing warmth of the day, reading a book, and listening to wind and frogs and birds.

(The picture gets bigger if you click on it.)